Wednesday, January 11, 2006

When it rains in Spain...

MADRID, Jan. 10 - The Spanish police arrested 20 people on Tuesday in connection with a recruiting network that, according to the Interior Ministry, sent Islamic militants to join the insurgency in Iraq. One of the militants was an Algerian suspected of killing 19 Italians in a suicide bombing in 2003, the ministry said.The suspects are the third group that the Spanish have arrested in less than seven months on charges of aiding the insurgency. Spain has made a total of 46 arrests.

Nearly two years after the train bombings in Madrid killed 191 people on March 11, 2004, fears are growing that the country is becoming increasingly fertile ground for the recruitment of Islamic militants.